Name
Dennis Harold Head
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
20/07/1943
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sergeant
1337670
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL
Panel 152.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin, Hitchin Boys’ Grammar School Memorial (WW2), Not on the Pirton memorials
Biography
He was born in Pirton on the 29th September 1921 and was at Pirton School before attending the Hitchin Grammar School from 1933-1938. He obtained his School Certificate and was a keen footballer being awarded Radcliffe House colours. On leaving the school he became a telegraphist and sorting clerk at the Hitchin Post Office. Immediately before joining the R.A.F. he was a cost clerk with Messrs Geo. King, a local engineering company. He is described as having dark hair and five feet eight and a half inches tall.
He was given Service Number 1337670 in the R.A.F. and was in Canada on the 12th February 1942. In 1943 he attended an O.T.U. and passed a navigator's course, but it has been suggested that he was a rear gunner. Later he was lost over the North Sea whilst returning from an operational raid on enemy occupied Europe. At the time he was with the 1662 Conversion Unit based at Blyton in Lincolnshire.
He has no known grave and is remembered on Panel 152 of the Runnymede Memorial to the Missing at Egham in Surrey.
His parents were Albert Harold and Emily Head, and his father was the Pirton postman. Before moving to 16, Florence St. Hitchin the family lived in Rose Cottage, Pirton, a dwelling that has since been demolished and replaced.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Mr John Chard - his nephew, Hitchin Grammar School Chronicle, Hitchin Grammar School Registers, R.A.F. Records Office, Mrs Clare Baines - Pirton historian, Paul Johnson - local historian, Mr Joe Titmuss - former neighbour, Mrs J. M. Upton - former neighbour
